Western Kentucky officials want pathologist at area medical examiner's office

Having a pathologist at the state medical examiner's office in Madisonville is high on the wish list for many law enforcement personnel and coroner's offices in Western Kentucky.

The closest medical examiner's office is in Louisville, a trip authorities said absorbs a large portion of agency resources in the form of finances and man-hours. It also is one that police and coroners have had to make often since June 2011 when the medical examiner's position in the Madisonville office became vacant.

"We have to do autopsies with all death investigations," said Trooper Corey King, public information officer for Post 16.

The state police conduct death investigations in most incidents of death, King said.

"If someone is found dead somewhere (other than a hospital) then that (usually) warrants an autopsy," he said. "We usually request one, just in case."

King said traveling to Louisville is expensive and time-consuming.

"(Financially) it's hard, especially with gasoline at $3 to $4 a gallon. And then man-hours," he said.

Henderson County

Coroner Bruce Farmer said earlier this year that the state was going to close the Madisonville office to save money.

Then a committee of coroners, he said, "went to Frankfort and did a lot of lobbying, met with the governor's staff and got the office saved."

Now the group of coroners comprising the hiring committee, of which Farmer is a member, is searching for a pathologist to fill the position.

The salary range for a first-year medical examiner is between $108,000 and $141,000, officials said.

"This is an ongoing project, and we aren't slacking up," he said.

Farmer said that the cost of transporting a body to and from Madisonville is about $125 round-trip. Transporting a body to Louisville is approximately $550 a trip. For those agencies farther away than Henderson County, a delay in an autopsy requires an overnight stay in Louisville, which increases the cost of the trip, he said.

Henderson Police Lt. Chip Stauffer said "travel time" to Louisville and the lack of relationships with pathologists have had a huge impact on local law enforcement.

"We certainly would like to have the position filled (in Madisonville) for convenience and personal relationship (building)," he said. "A smaller office allows opportunities for (law enforcement) to have (one-on-one) conversations with medical examiners during investigations and not just at the time of the autopsy," Stauffer said.

"Louisville (medical examiner's office) is crowded," said Henderson County Sheriff's Detective John Book. "It's always backed up. Sometimes they can't get to you on the day of the scheduled autopsy, so you have to drive home and then back up the next day.

"In Madisonville, it would take about three weeks to get the toxicology screen results back. In Louisville, it takes six to eight weeks on average to get a toxicology screen back," he said.

Book said this delays an investigation.

"Nobody in this part of the state will disagree that we need a pathologist in Madisonville."